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Formula: Ca(WO4)
Tungstate, scheelite group
Crystal System: Tetragonal
Specific gravity: 6.1 measured, 6.09 calculated
Hardness: 4½ to 5
Streak: White
Colour: Tan, golden-yellow, colourless, white, greenish, dark brown, etc.; colourless in
transmitted light
May be compositionally colour zoned.
Solubility: Slightly soluble in hydrochloric acid
Common impurities: Mo,Nb,Ta
Environments:
Plutonic igneous environments
Pegmatites
Placer deposits
Metamorphic environments (common)
Hydrothermal environments
Scheelite is a primary mineral found in
granite
pegmatites and also a secondary
mineral in contact metamorphic deposits and in the oxidation zone of
hypothermal (high temperature) hydrothermal veins in
granitic rocks and in alluvial deposits.
In contact metamorphic environments it may be associated with
molybdenite.
In hydrothermal veins it is associated with
apatite,
arsenopyrite,
cassiterite,
fluorite,
topaz and
hübnerite-ferberite.
Localities
The Two Mile and Three Mile deposits, Paddy's River, Paddys River District, Australian Capital Territory, Australia,
are skarn deposits at the contact between
granodiorite and volcanic rocks.
Scheelite is a primary oxide that occurs at the Two
Mile deposit in massive and granular forms in magnetite and
amphibole skarn.
Rare green plates of scheelite with langite have been observed in
magnetite
(AJM 22.1.38).
The Lin Fa Shan deposit, Tsuen Wan District, New Territories, Hong Kong, China, is located in a remote area of the Tai Mo Shan
Country Park, on a steep west facing slope of Lin Fa Shan, just above the abandoned village of Sheung Tong. The
surrounding hillsides are covered with shallow excavations, representing past searches for
wolframite, the natural ore of
tungsten. The abandoned workings are extremely dangerous with unsupported tunnels, open shafts and no maintenance since
their closures in 1957; the workings should not be entered
(http://industrialhistoryhk.org/lin-shan).
Scheelite occurs in small amounts with wolframite in the hydrothermal ore
deposit.
Lin Fa Shan is the only locality in Hong Kong where scheelite is found with
wolframite
(Hong Kong Minerals (1991). Peng, C J. Hong Kong Urban Council).
At the Yaogangxian Mine, Yaogangxian W-Sn ore field, Yizhang county, Chenzhou, Hunan, China, a new find (in
about 2023) produced very sharp, brownish orange pseudo-octahedral crystals of scheelite to 1 cm,
sprinkled on plates consisting of small, pale purple, intergrown
fluorite crystals with dustings of
pyrite
(Minrec 55.1.90).
See Image
At Trumbull, Fairfield county, Connecticut, USA, wulfenite
pseudomorphs after scheelite have been found
(KL p217).
At Long Hill, Haddam, Middlesex county, Connecticut, USA, ferberite
pseudomorphs after scheelite have been found
(KL p215).
At the Gold Hill District, Deep Creek Mountains, Tooele county, Utah, USA,
cuprotungstite pseudomorphs
after scheelite have been found
(KL p218).
Alteration
Scheelite may form as an alteration product of ferberite
(AJM 18.2.26).
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